Friday, April 4, 2008
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Metal mouth! That's what they called my daughter in Junior High. Of course, there were plenty of kids you could call that. Those pre-teen and early teen years are the braces years, right? All our kids got to take their turn at braces, and we were thankful, frankly, that we had a friend who was their orthodontist. The work was important, but oh the bills were challenging! Our friend allowed us to pay in installments, but even that was hard. We still had this large unpaid balance the day our latest bill arrived. We opened it and we couldn't believe the three beautiful words that were stamped across the bill: PAID IN FULL!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "The Only Payment Plan You Can Afford."
Now, I've had that experience twice in my life, once was when the man I owed declared my bill "paid," the second time was when the God I owed declared my bill "paid."
Our word for the day from the Word of God comes from John 19:30. Jesus has been hanging on that awful cross for six long hours, He's now breathing His last and it says, "When He had received the drink, Jesus said, 'It is finished,' and with that, He bowed His head and He gave up His spirit." Now, if you were to read that three word sentence in the original Greek, it's one word, tetelestai. It's an interesting word that Jesus shouted from the cross there. In fact, some archaeologists a few years ago dug up a tax collectors office that was really intact, and it still had the tax records there. There were two stacks and one of them had the word, tetelestai, on the top. In other words "paid in full." Those people didn't owe anything anymore.
Now, Jesus declared that His death was a payment, a full payment! He said, "It's paid in full," the price was paid by the life of God's one and only Son. It was a bill that I could not pay myself, it's a bill you cannot pay; none of us can.
The Bible describes the reason why we have such a massive debt with God. It says, "The wages of sin is death." Now, some of us religious folks will say, "Hey, I don't think that applies to me!" Well, the bad news is, the Bible says, "All have sinned and fallen short of God's glory." Sin is a whole lot more than just breaking some religious rules. It's taking this life that God was supposed to run and running it our way instead. It's my way instead of God's way living. And the penalty is clear, and it is sobering - it is death - separation from the God who made us now and ultimately forever, and that is hell.
You and I have this overwhelming sin bill with God and eternal separation from God is the only way to pay for it. Our religion doesn't even come close to covering it. But that verse has some good news, the one that says, "The wages of sin is death," it says, "But the gift of God is eternal life." Now, how can that be? It's like my orthodontist friend, the one we owe the debt to has declared our bill "paid" at the cost of His life. When He was hanging on that cross, Jesus was absorbing every sin we've ever committed and all of its' penalty.
Eternal life is described by God as a gift, and the gift isn't yours until you take it. If there has never been a time when you've told Jesus that you're putting you're total trust in Him to forgive your sin and get you to heaven, then your deadly sin bill remains on your record. But that could change in these next few moments, if you would tell Jesus you want Him to be your Savior.
This could be the day that you are forgiven and you begin your relationship with Him and change your eternal address from hell to heaven. If you're ready to begin that life-changing, life-saving relationship with Jesus, I'd like to invite you to our website. A lot of people have told us they found help there in getting started with Him; it's yoursforlife.net. Or I'll send you my booklet about this called Yours For Life. You can call us toll free for it at 877-741-1200.
There's this little song that says, "He paid a debt He did not owe, I owed a debt I could not pay, I needed someone to wash my sins away, and now I sing a brand new song, amazing grace, Christ Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay." Well, He's waiting to hear from you. He's waiting to stamp your bill forever "paid in full!"